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Month: February 2017

The Shield resumed after a 7 week BBL hiatus and the 5 remaining rounds plus the final will be played with English brand Duke “Special County” cricket balls.

This round saw the depth of state squads tested with Australian players on ODI duty in New Zealand and others resting or training ahead of the tour of India.

South Australia v Western Australia, Glenelg Oval

With boxing taking centre stage at Adelaide Oval, this low scoring tussle was played at Glenelg.

It was notable to see the WA batting line up featured Hilton Cartwright at Number 3 and Micheal Klinger batting at 5. One wonders if the selector/talent manager who pushed for Cartwright to play the Sydney test might also have pushed for this move. Only Greg Chappell would know I feel.

Curiously WA went into this match with just 3 front line bowlers with the balance of overs to be made up by Cartwright, Ashton Turner and Darcy Short. Fortunately for the Warriors they were only required to bowl 93 overs in the match in total. Wicket keeper Sam Whiteman missed for WA with a finger injury meaning Josh Inglis made his WA debut.

South Australia handed a debut to the leading wicket taker in this season’s Matador Cup, fast bowler Cameron Valente. Dan Worrall missed with a back injury, another set back in a frustrating season for him and Joe Mennie has a suspected fractured skull after being hit in the nets bowling for the Sydney Sixers. Alex Ross returend to the middle order.

In their first innings WA were rolled for 201. Chadd Sayers took 5/68 and Kane Richardson 4/55. Josh Inglis top scored with 49* for the Warriors.

Western Australia’s second innings went the same way as the previous two innings, with the Warriors all out for 245. Opener Cameron Bancroft made 56 but as per the first innings it was Chadd Sayers with 4/64 and Kane Richardson with 5/69 who did the damage for SA. This was Kane Richardson’s first 5 wicket haul in his 23rd first class match, he seems to have been around for a long time.

Set 200 for outright victory the Redbacks started well as they made it to 43 with out loss. Then disaster stuck as the middle order crumbled – Ferguson (2) Lehamnn (golden duck) and Alex Ross (0) departed in quick succession to Simon Mackin and the Redbacks slumped to 5/67. Tom Cooper (55 off 64 balls) and keeper Alex Carey (46 off 50 balls) shared a partnership of 99 and had the Redbacks just 34 shy of victory. Darcy Short dismissed Carey sparking another Redback collapse from 5/166 to 9/178. The final pairing of Sayers and David Grant edged SA closer but it wasn’t enough as the Redbacks were all out for 192. Western Australia won by 7 runs. Simon Mackin took 5/78 and David Moody took 4/45. A bowlers match indeed.

Points

Western Australia 7.01

South Australia 1.47

Victoria v New South Wales, MCG

The last cricket match of the summer at the MCG saw Victoria recall Rob Quiney and hand a debut to prolific 18 year old batsmen Will Pucovski. Sam Harper was given the gloves, fast bowler Chris Tremain did not play, replaced by Jake Reed and Evan Gulbis made his first appearance for the Vics in Shield cricket.

New South Wales omitted Nic Maddinson and drafted in Nick Larkin to open. Trent Copeland returned from a nasty finger injury from November and Sean Abbott played his first Shield match of the summer. Will Somerville was also recalled as the spinner.

Victoria batted first and were rumbled for 258. Opener Travis Dean top scored with 67. The pick of the NSW bowlers was Harry Conway with 3/25 off 15 overs.

New South Wales faced no such difficulties in their first innings. Ed Cowan made 212 off 386 balls his 23rd first class century. Peter Neville made 118 and Moises Henriques and Kurtis Patterson chipped in with half centuries. Jon Holland put in a big spell of 42 overs taking 4/155. Interesting to note Victorian skipper Cameron White bowled 20 overs of his seldom seen leg spin.

Victoria’s second innings was as disastrous as it’s first. Opener Travis Dean carried his bat for an unbeaten 79 but otherwise it was a dismal showing. Debutante Will Pucovski did not bat in the second innings due to concussion issues after being struck by the ball will fielding at mid off – the ball kicked off another pitch. An extremely unlucky turn of events for the youngster who has struggled with severe concussion issues in previous seasons.

Shaun Abbot (4/42) and Will Somerville (3/32) were the pick of the Blues bowlers as they belted the Vics by an innings and 77 runs.

Points

New South Wales 8.08

Victoria 0.98

Queensland v Tasmania, Gabba

Queensland recalled the forgotten Peter Forrest to open the batting and reworked their bowling attack to include Mark Steketee, Cameron Gannon and Jason Floros.

Tasmania handed debuts to two Victorians: opening batsmen Jake Hancock and opening bowler Andrew ‘Pez’ Perrin from Fitzroy-Doncaster CC. Alex Doolan returned from his “concussion” which was actually a broken jaw but never mentioned.

Queensland batted first and Peter Forrest had an unhappy return making 4 and 13. Joe Burns made 83 and Marnus Labushagne 61 but it was veteran keeper Chris Hartley who rescued the innings from mediocrity. Coming in at 5/183 Hartley peeled off an unbeaten 102 to guide the Bulls to a position of strength at 9/405 declared. Andrew Perrin and Cameron Stevenson (another Victorian) were the pick of the Tassie bowlers with 3 wickets apiece.

Tasmania’s batting was once again poor. Jake Hancock made a duck on debut and only George Bailey managed a half century. The Tigers were all out for 200. Special mention must be made of Joe Burns who after recently taking his first wicket in the BBL, picked up his first First Class wicket. Jake Doran was the victim and Burns returned the tidy figures of 2 overs, 2 maidens 1/0.

Queensland did a little bit of declaration batting in the second innings with youngster Sam Truloff top scoring with 44 off 33 balls. Andrew Perrin picked up 2 more wickets and the Tigers were chasing 352 for victory.

Regular wickets mean the Tigers weren’t really in the hunt and were 8/114 by midway through session 2 of Day 4. Some late order heroics from number 8, Simon Milenko (68 off 89) and number 10 Cameron Stevenson (42 off 81) caused Quensland some concerns but a run out by Jack Wildermuth ended the partnership and then Wildermuth returned with the ball to dismiss Milenko and the game was over with over an hour to spare.

Queensland won by 133 runs a victory made al the sweeter for Bulls veteran keeper Chris Hartley who claimed a Sheffield Shield record 547th dismissal during the match over taking Darren Berry at the top of the most dismissals list.